The Hugo Award-Winning SF Signal!

I’m still catching up on a few posts I’ve wanted to write since heading home from Chicon. I realize I haven’t yet got to say how thrilled I was when SF Signal won the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine. It was a highlight of the convention to see John DeNardo take the stage and accept the award.

I have been extraordinarily fortunate to be affiliated with SF Signal over the last several years. I sometimes feel like it has been entirely to my benefit. I remember noting sometime in 2008 that a blog post I had written had been picked up by SF Signal’s “Tidbits” and I was so excited by that, I think I talked about nothing else all day. I turn to SF Signal each morning to see what’s happening in the world of science fiction and I’m never disappointed.

And I probably owe a large part of my blog audience to SF Signal. More than a year ago, John got in touch with me to tell me that he liked the posts I wrote on science fiction, and asked if I’d like to write a column for them. That became the Wayward Time Traveler column, which I wrote for nearly a year and which I had a blast doing. It was a difficult, sad, decision to have to stop doing that column–with two kids and other obligations, it just became too much for me. But that column, and the other opportunities the John and the SF Signal folks gave me, lead to one of two big, sustained spikes in my audience here at this blog and so I am indebted to SF Signal not just for the opportunities they have given me, but also for the audience.

The best part of my affiliation with SF Signal, however, has been the friends I have made. This includes, of course, John DeNardo and Patrick Hester. It also includes people like Paul Weimer and Fred Kiesche and several others. Chatting with these folks online is like having a mini-convention. They are some of the biggest fans I know, but they are also among the nicest people I’ve met in science fiction.

What is remarkable about SF Signal is the scope of the genre that it embraces. Not just science fiction, but fantasy and horror. And not just written science fiction (my particular favorite), but movies, television, podcasts, art, music and gaming. Whatever your interest in the uber-genre, SF Signal has managed to cover it. Their tidbits keep you up-to-date. Their mind-melds provides a wide cross-section of viewpoints on countless topics. They have fantastic interviews. They point you to places you can find free fiction online. They highlight new writers and artists. They encourage burgeoning bloggers. They plug their contributors, but are remarkably humble about themselves. They reach out into every part of the science fiction/fantasy/horror genre and they are always a good fit.

I am just so thrilled that SF Signal won a Hugo Award and it was a pleasure to finally get to meet John and Patrick and others affiliated with SF Signal in person in Chicago.